Fashion piece on Linen
It’s Only Natural
Nothing is cooler than a linen suit for when dog days draw near.
THERE IS LITTLE in the lexicon of men’s
fashion that compares with linen for cool,
comfort, style and grace. Neither is there a
fabric that wrinkles so prolifically. Yet for
those who understand and appreciate the
virtues of this unique fiber, which dates back
to prehistoric times (fragments of linen
cloth have been found in remains of Stone
Age villages in Switzerland), linen stands
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apart as one of the most comfortable, elegant fabrics ever put to needle and thread.
Wrinkles be damned, who could forget Sydney Greenstreet in his white linen vested
suits or Burl Ives prowling around in his
ivory double-breasted linen suit as Big
Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Perhaps the oldest fabric known to man,
linen is a natural fabric made from the fiber
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surrounding the woody core of the flax plant
known as linum usitatissimum. Ranging in color
from creamy white to golden amber, linen is
actually stronger and more absorbent than
cotton. Certainly this elegant fabric has
been put to the test over the years, dubious
endeavors that include impregnating it with
a resin solution to cure the cloth of its
propensity toward wrinkling, and another
whereby the finished fabric is pounded with
wooden blocks to impart a permanent luster.
But anyone with a sense of style knows
that cool, comfortable linen, in neutral
shades of cream, ivory, beige, flax, gold or
wheat, is best worn with nary a care about
crinkling or a second thought about wrinkles.
For the majority of better men’s clothiers linen has always been an important fabric in warm weather collections for
spring/summer, and always will. To be sure,
a certain amount of educating the consumer
is always needed to a degree because the
qualities of pure linen, not like Dupioni silk,
are often misunderstood. In the same way
some men fail to understand how silk can be
as cool as cotton in the summer, they similarly don’t realize these same virtues in linen.
“So many people think they can only
wear linen when in the tropics, as though
wrinkles were only acceptable while on
vacation,” says Andrew Mitchell, VP of marketing for Mitchells and Richards, fine men’s
clothiers based in Westport, Connecticut.
“Once they get home, linen is no longer
an option, and that’s just silly. A man stands
out in a great linen suit, wrinkles and all, and
it’s a great look for a summer wedding party.
For me, it’s cashmere in the winter, linen in
the summer. There is no more comfortable
or cooler fabric.”
From a purely romantic standpoint, a
pure linen suit certainly allows for a truly
timeless look, one that conjures images of
Havana and cigars, white bucks and boutonnieres. As with no other fabric, it exudes an
old world feeling. To keep the image true to
form, one must never dispel a dapper straw
hat as a finishing touch to any linen outfit.
It’s only natural. Sydney and Burl would be
proud. — RALPH DIGENNARO